What is Special K – Ketamine

Ketamine is a drug that is classified as an anesthetic. It also possesses some hallucinogenic effects. Ketamine has the ability to distort sight and sound perceptions. The drug can give the user an out of body experience and make them feel disconnected from the world. It is typically used as a short-acting anesthetic in humans and animals but sometimes referred to as a horse tranquilizer. Ketamine makes a user feel calm and relaxed. It can give immediate relief from pain, induce sedation and short term amnesia. Ketamine has also been used as a date rape drug.

Are There Any Street Names?

What Does Ketamine Look Like?

You will find ketamine in two different forms. The drug comes in a clear liquid and a white or off-white powder. The powdered form of ketamine is usually packaged and sold in small glass vials or plastic bags, and capsules, small pieces of folded paper, or squares of aluminum foil.

How is this drug abused?

Ketamine, can be used as a date rape drug or a club drug. Both are popular among young adults at dance clubs and rave parties. This drug is manufactured commercially as both a powder and a liquid. The powdered form of ketamine is cut into lines for snorting. It is also put on smaller surfaces known as bumps for sniffing or smoking. It can be mixed in with marijuana or tobacco cigarettes as well. The liquid form of the drug is injected or dumped into drinks. This is how it used as a date rape drug.

What Are The Effects On The Brain?

The drug can cause hallucinations because it distorts your sight and hearing senses. The drug typically makes the user feel disconnected from the environment around them and not in control of their body. Drug users that like the "trip", or take hallucinogens, prefer ketamine, over LSD or magic mushrooms because of the short duration of the high. A ketamine high lasts 30 - 60 minutes, compared to 6 - 8 hours. Some users experience what is called a "K-Hole". This refers to a state almost at overdose levels. Since ketamine is typically taken orally or is snorted the onset of the effects are rapid and can occur within a few minutes of ingesting it.

Some users also experience flashbacks several weeks after taking the drug. A flashback is a sudden hallucination that can happen at any time or anyplace when sober.

What Are The Effects On The Body?

After someone takes ketamine, the user may experience nausea, an increased heart rate and blood pressure. This decreases over the span of a half hour. Take too much and you could become totally unresponsive, but not unconscious. This will leave you slobbering, with watery eyes, stiff muscles and dilated pupils. The drug can also leave users in an agitated, or depressed mood.

Is Ketamine Legal In The United States?

Ketamine is a Schedule III non-narcotic substance listed under the Federal Controlled Substances Act. This includes its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers. It does have acceptable medical use, but also some potential for abuse. This means the drug can lead to a physical or psychological dependence.